#massively wasted potential imo

[evilkitten3]

i was gonna ask if there was one of those everycharacter blogs for hanabi but like. i don't know if we ever see her after the chuunin exams arc? like i'm not sure she ever shows up again. we see her in kurenai's flashback about hinata, and she shows up to watch neji's fight in the finals, and.... i think that's pretty much it.

[cherubchoirs]

your blog is like a finite library where i continue to stumble upon beautiful things

thank you for your thoughts

as of the ask - how would you imagine fraud and characters in it, if you can picture it at all? between all three of the upcoming layers, this one is the most eluding one of their description, so it's always interesting to see different opinions on it

thank you so much! your art is genuinely such an inspiration, i'm always so happy to see a new piece from you and so i wanted to thank you as well for sharing your work

fraud is a very interesting layer in the inferno, with its set up being somewhat unique compared to many of the others as it consists of ten pits of torment that cover a pretty broad range of sinners. what stands out to me about it as an environment though is that it is within the walls of dis and it is a ruined city, with massive amounts of crumbling or simply destroyed architecture. this is sort of my basis for how i envision fraud and although i'm likely way off base, i think it could be interesting to see a transition in aesthetics in general past heresy.

heresy itself marks the first layer in dis, the city that consumes the lower layers of hell, and it's interesting to note the highly architectural environments it presents in game - the gothic cathedral is sharp and commanding, very much having a presence in itself. i would love to see more city-like environments included, but ones that have a distinct, alien feeling compared to those of the lust layer as they are not made by humans, it's architecture meant to torment, to enclose and to sicken, and i enjoy fraud being the pinnacle of this before it gives way to an utterly barren treachery. but importantly, i want to see the decay of fraud, to see its twisted form nearly incomprehensible in its destruction. once there stood buildings difficult for the mind to conceive, but those fell centuries ago and the damage of so many souls suddenly filling what's left of its skeletal remains only ruined them further. fully understanding and taking advantage of all the ways it can move is now vital to v1, some areas near impossible to traverse as no comprehensible paths exist (if they ever did). it would be a very tiered layer, with v1 sometimes having to ascend into different bolgia in order to make its progress - i just like the idea of playing a lot with movement and creative thinking (+ some help from explosives) to find paths forward. overall, i want the sense that this was a city but it's impossible to say anything beyond that, what's left all jarring to the senses and nearly overwhelming to look at (especially again to contrast it with treachery, a blank, unending void that barely has a single thing the eyes can find purchase on).

following that, however, i think fraud will really do something to emphasize the blindness of hell - like several people have pointed out by now, many beings lack eyes in hell, but i think the most important of these have been the angels. virtues have their eyes removed (or they simply vanish) upon descending into hell while gabriel's helmet appears sightless as well, and we now know this is likely due to god being so ashamed of it he wants no one to actually behold it. this makes fraud quite interesting for a couple reasons: in the inferno, the lower layers mark the beginning of sinners wishing for no one to lay eyes upon them as they are so humiliated by their state and who they were in life to place them so deep into hell. they attempt to hide their identities, they sometimes do not give their names, and this becomes incredibly apparent in fraud. additionally, fraud is a sin of deceit, many of the sinners there those that worked in secret to do harm, meaning even in life they wished to go unseen. so i very much think that the sightless nature of hell will be worked in deeply - i would be interested in all the husks and demons here to be without eyes, with only the machines remaining to see it. this is also another reason why i want fraud to be so difficult to look at - it doesn't want to be seen, it begs not to be perceived and it never should be. before it was only the angels that all had their eyes taken, but so deep into the layers nothing may see, everything must be sightless lest it see a world so painful and so hideous, so ugly and so embarrassing to god.

so my ideas are very much based around the actual source material of the inferno, but i do think fraud could make for some really interesting architecture. and i would sort of like to see a husk/husks that seem adapted to living in such a bizarre place, a lot like the stalkers with forms now made for vertical ascents and clawing their way over ruins, possibly translucent like so many animals that live without sun in the deep sea (not to riff too much on wrath lol). i guess in a sense it really is like those trenches or subterranean cave networks - alien and unsettling, difficult to traverse with its grotesque geography, and suited to life totally unlike that above it. fraud is a place that wants to hide, but ironically it exists as one of the most expansive layers in all of hell.

[thevindicativevordan]

Comics this week? (Specially The Ultimates #4)

Anonymous asked: Comics this week ?

My Adventures With Superman #4 - I know the DCAU JLU Christmas episode is popular, but I've always been put off by it. I can't help seeing an air of condescension in how it treats Superman being a grown man who still believes in Santa, I get a "yes he's dumb and gullible, but isn't that wholesome?" takeaway from it all. Meanwhile I loved how Josie Campbell explored celebrating Christmas here as an expression of love and family. Ma and Pa adopted Clark as their son even though he wasn't blood, then the comic expands that to touch on how Lois and Jimmy have become "family" too. Even extends it right up to Amazo getting treated by Clark as a brother in a touching moment where Superman willingly shares his powers with Amazo so they both can kick Bloodsport and Deathstroke's asses, and Amazo tells Clark he thinks of Clark as family also. It's all very sweet right up until Deathstroke blows a hole in Amazo at the end. Bloodsport is the coolest he has ever been here, when he brings out the big guns I was hooting and hollering. I think this might be my favorite take on Amazo now too. I dug his DCAU incarnation but this is the first time I'm really invested in him as a character, and there's tension because he might not make it out alive.

Absolute Power #3 - Waid is trying to weave together the disparate threads of the past year into a cohesive whole, while simultaneously trying to shuffle the detritus of the past year off the board. End result is a mess of stitched together moments that don't work imo. Example of that is Nightwing "stepping up" as a leader, yet his push feeling hollow when his team failed to take the League's place. A number of other characters like Barda and Mid-Nite get written out of character so that Dick as the avatar of the Silver Age ethos can prove them wrong. Oh and if I have to read another issue of Waid going HEART is our REAL superpower, I think my eyes might be permanently stuck in a cycle of rolling.

Ultimates #4 - Ultimates #4 reminded me of reading Ruins. Exceptionally bleak from beginning to end, poor 6160 Reed. It avoids being nihilistic at least because there is a malicious bad actor in Maker who is making sure that everything turns out as bad as it possibly can, rather than it simply being the nature of the world. Sets up an Ultimate F4 book for sure, but given how Doom is outright skirting the edge of villainy with how he ominously says he’s adhering to Tony’s moral rules for now, I’m wondering if he won’t actually be a part of the team. Maybe he’s the one who gets captured and Tony creates an Ultimate F4 of entirely new people to go save him? Otherwise I see their failure to beat Hulk being the point at which Doom bails on the Ultimates team. I’d prefer Doom be part of the Ultimate F4 though, he’s simply too interesting as a Reed who is massively messed up but is trying to be a hero. If they do end up making him a villain that would be an utter waste of potential. Maker is already the broken Reed, Doom needs to be the Reed who is bent but not broken. Seeing him walk the tightrope is more interesting than seeing him fall off.

[littjara-mirrorlake]

im coping that maybe in the end mom or aftermath he can still be rebuilt 😭😭🤞🙏

if this is literally the permanent end of urabrask then i no longer care for the story nor phyrexia as a whole. my enjoyment of them was very much based on urabrask and his vision for them and without that they lose any enjoyable nuance for me and just go back to being evil plague monsters

it would be waste of a good character otherwise and someoneto use if the ever need phyrexia again but not in a major antagonist role

like the fact we didnt even get a full story from his perspective?!? the absolute waste

Yeah.... as I said, I'm very worried about Urabrask, especially considering what he represents: the hope of a freed, non-villainous Phyrexia where its denizens are allowed to simply be people. If he actually goes down, that could be very bad for the end of the story and for Phyrexia's continued representation in general.

I do think that Urabrask is far from the only hope for nuance in Phyrexia, but he definitely looms large in most people's minds as that.

And I definitely agree that it's a massive waste of story potential not to narrate anything from Urabrask's perspective, when he is (imo) one of the most important, if not the most important, voices in the narrative.

[sapphire-weapon]

Your analysis about Ada and Leon makes so much sense (add in his miserable trapped-in-unending-danger and killing the president... yeah. Of course Leon's at a breakdown point. It'd be a miracle for Leon to stay sane at all).

I think that's what bothers me most about the ship though. Ada doesn't actually owe him anything. She never claimed to either. She certainly didn't owe romance or friendship. The whole idea of him losing his mind for the IDEA of somebody he doesn't know... being manipulated over and over again while she also doesn't really get a huge amount of storytime other than "oh yeah, he likes her but it's still a mystery and she kinda just uses him but then saves him but then uses him again". I just think the whole thing's a mess. That's my personal opinion. I hold strong in the idea that if the remakes change their story entirely, both characters could benefit in huge ways.

Aeon destroys Ada as a character. Absolutely wastes her potential and ignores who actually is, other than a fantasy. It completely stunts Leons development too and how he interacts with the other people around him. Was he kind of a dick in RE4make? Yeah. But at least it actually makes total sense and Separate Ways has a massive potential on their hands to finally develop Ada as her own character, with her own actually written out story and clear motives. Remove the romance, and you'll find two much better written stories (imo).

I feel like "Ada manipulates Leon" is such a... surface-level interpretation.

For better or for worse, Leon is canonically one of the smartest people in the cast. He's no Rebecca Chambers, but he was a straight-A student who also got top marks in police academy and is the single most powerful weapon the US government has produced since the atomic bomb.

To say that Ada manipulates Leon implies that he doesn't know that he's being used. He knows. He knew it in RE4, he knew it in Damnation, and he still knew it in RE6, regardless of anything else. RE2make even goes a step further and says he knew it in RE2, even. He knows, and he just lets her do it.

But, like... sad to say it, but that's what Leon does.

Leon objectifies himself. Leon allows himself to be used. That's all he's ever done.

He lets the government use him, he lets Ada use him, and he, to a certain extent, lets Chris use him, too. Because Leon's self-image is as such that his entire sense of self-worth is wrapped up in how useful he is.

Vendetta is the single only instance in his entire character arc that he reflects on his life and thinks that maybe -- just maybe -- he deserved better. "Is this what my life's supposed to be?"

So, with the whole Ada thing, this just makes everything even more complicated because not only was he chasing after her for answers, but he'd also had to force himself to believe that she was using him for the sake of the greater good. All of his shit re: Ada was wrapped up in a delusion he'd created in order to justify the current state of his life.

He's finally starting to break out and away from that mindset. It's going to be really interesting to see where the next numbered game he's in takes him, because I really do think it's going to end up harboring a giant Tower moment for him.

And, yeah... re: Aeon ruining Ada's character. We've talked about that at such great lengths on this blog already. There's really not much more to say on it. I really hope RE4make's Separate Ways puts her on a more independent path.

[sludge-wizard]

I’ve noticed lately there’s an uptick in people who write characters as being poor/growing up poor(particularly Mario and Luigi), and I love to see it because I grew up poor myself. I wanted to compile a bunch of memories I have of growing up poor as a potential reference to anybody who wants it, because i know not everybody here was broke but wants to write characters as broke and it can be hard to find resources that AREN’T just guesses at what things might’ve been like. do note my own experiences aren’t universal, but they’re what I’m familiar with since it was my own childhood.

Definitely not a totally complete list and I'll add more as I think of them, and if people want to ask me questions for any clarification, go ahead!

-Brushing our teeth by taking a mouthful of watered down mouthwash and sticking the toothbrush in your mouth and brushing with your mouth full so we didnt need to buy toothpaste

-often times breakfast was just a glass of milk because it was relatively cheap

-fancy family breakfasts were sundays only and usually simple french crepes because they’re only eggs milk and flour, and we’d have them with butter+sugar or lemon+sugar

-my mom was a waitress at nights and those days she’d send home leftovers from her job as dinner since they didnt want to waste at the restaurant she worked at

-Birthdays i always shared with my older sister and parties were every other year with a hard limit on 5 invites each. they were either at the small family owned movie theatre or the bowling alley.

-I never had a playdate at my own house. I never understood at the time, but i know now it was because our house was really run down and we didn’t have extra snacks or anything to entertain guests really

-once a month our mom would have enough change scrounged up to send me and my siblings (5 of us total) to the corner store 2 blocks down for slurpees. Highlight of the month.

-we’d have quesadillas a lot (tortillas with cheese salsa and chicken, not really authentic) because one grocery store chicken could feed everybody for 2 days straight this way

-fried rice or hash browns with bacon and onions were a common meal since onions, potatoes, rice and bulk frozen bacon was cheap at the time

-every family pet we ever had were rescues we got for free with the exception of my 2 current cats which my mom bought for $75 off of kijiji 14 years ago. I still have the kitties!

-we often had those massive flatpacks of assorted soda flavours because it was cheaper than juice or bottled water but we were limited to 2 cans a week

-we shared the bathwater up until we were in highschool, and even then we wouldn’t drain the tub if somebody else needed a bath and they could re-use the water.

-the local church would send a lot of donations our way. the most prominent were bags upon bags of day old bakery bread they couldnt sell.

-a lot of times dinner were whole frozen fish we could get for cheap since they were too small to cut and sell as fillets.

-hot dogs were a VERY common meal because they were cheap in bulk frozen packs

-the fanciest appliance in the whole house was a massive, clunky kitchen maid my mom got at her wedding.

-we always made our own fresh pesto since it was much cheaper than storebought pastes. it also tastes WAY better imo

-every christmas the local church would request gifts of a certain variety, under the premise of secret santas. they’d ask for “gift for -gender- child, -age-, -interest- and then send the gifts to the appropriate family. We got a LOT of gift cards to places like indigo or EB games/Gamestop for this reason

-the year my older brother and I got nintendo DSlites for christmas was because we were donated money. we each got 1 DS game each, and took turns with them. all the DS games we got after that were second hand or donated.

-I had about 15 random Littlest Pet Shops and no houses/playsets for them because again, donations. the one year I finally got one was during a white elephant at the local church, where I got the messenger pigeon and post office.

[svedupelle]

rwby volume 9 isnt filler. the true filler are volumes 4-8... kind of

rwby's always had an issue of not being capable of managing its cast properly. in the past people said that it's because the cast was too big, and that's still true, it's been true the whole way through. but the problem doesnt lie in the number of characters, rather its the number of relevant characters. for some ungodly reason, the writers REFUSE to leave out characters, even when there's simply no reason for them to be there and even when their presence is actively detrimental, due to the fact that the writers will drag focus away from important characters to put it on less relevant characters.

for example: why is weiss in volume 9? why is she even in volumes 5 and 6? why are jaune, nora and ren in volumes 7-8? why is blake in volumes 7-9? all of these characters in each of these volumes could either be completely removed, or their moments & arcs could be better placed in another volume entirely for the benefit of the show.

weiss' only substantial contribution during v5-6 is her conversation with yang in the bedroom, which helps yang not be completely pissed off at blake. that's it. the rest of the time she's in the background, cracking jokes maybe and offering needless commentary. which is also all she does in volume 9! and by god she could've opened her mouth less and it would've made the volume better. but even in volumes 7 and 8, she feels relevant! a big part of it is due to the schnee family playing second fiddle to salem in terms of main conflict, but even then weiss barely gets the spotlight.

jaune, ren and nora dont really need to be in volumes 7 and 8. nora and ren's conflict just.. comes out of nowhere and frankly there was nno particular reason for them not to undergo that during v5 or 6. jaune is completely a background character until he kills penny and falls to the ever after, which imo was a bad call! why have jaune kill penny instead of ruby?? do jaune and penny even have a conversation? on the other hand, ruby having to kill penny would be far more impactful and would make her whole situation in the ever after that much more distressing. (i dont think ruby should've killed penny just for the edginess of it; but giving that moment to jaune is so fucking strange)

blake in volume 7 and 8 is a total waste of potential. you're telling you put the character with the most relevance to the faunus cause in the kingdom most well known for its racism and you barely have her mention it? in fact, DOES she even mention it? i know the writers dont want to touch the faunus subplot with a ten foot stick but that was a massive fucking blunder on their part. and as for volume 9, tbh bmblb should've become canon after vol 6. at latest in volume 7. dragging it out this fucking long did not feel good lol

laslty, ruby's arc this volume should've happened in volumes 4-8. it's insane to me that they give her absolutely nothing for four or five volumes straight and then rush it in the eleventh hour. jaune has like five character arcs during that span of time like what the fuck

whatever. the volume 9 finale reminded me of why i love this show and also why i absolutely despise it i hope we get a volume 10!

[transmutationisms]

really enjoying this mencken speculation: one of many chars. i’m excited to see more of in s4. how much do you think the roy sibling schism around mencken will impact whatever goals they have to achieve as the rebel alliance in taking on logan? (like will it be miniscule or overshadowed by another plot point or could it be a big tipping point for their efforts inevitably collapsing) what do you think kendall’s take on him will be? (he’s obviously an optics-driven progressive guy but something tells me if push comes to shove he might back roman/mencken. meanwhile i see shiv heading staunchly in the other direction - probably with presidential candidate connor roy following suit)

my speculations on kendall's reaction below but i think the importance of the mencken thing depends on whether this huge massive spoiler from this reddit thread is true. seriously don't click on that unless you are okay with a gigantic spoiler lol.

anyway if that is true and occurs prior to the mencken election episode (which it does if they're filming in order) then i think the sibling alliance has already fallen apart by this point, because they were always more defined by what they were fighting against than by having any proactive plan of their own. if the above spoiler is not true then the mencken thing could possibly be what shatters them, but more likely they just fall apart because, as in season 3, they're all blinded by looking out for their own interests and don't truly know how to collaborate with one another.

re: connor..... god i want him to run as a democrat with pierce family backing. like can you imagine?? his larouchist slay. and the potential connor-shiv teamup would be very funny. i hope he's still in the picture by the time the mencken thing goes down; if he runs third-party and he's already dead by this point then that's just a waste of him as a character imo.

[aromantic-misguide-to-romance]

Don't feel like WtG had a saving, the premise was incredibly superficial and the MCs writing felt like it was done by a man from the 90s. Massive objectification, like Snow being set as nasty because she is free to get with men before "finding the right one", Sleeping Beauty being resumed into "a killer body", Rapunzel an "innocent highschooler" that objective is to have a man. And we don't even talk about Jasmine having a full hispanic surname (cause they didn't shit cultures enough).

What was already written was indeed unsalvageable. It really seemed like it was done by some middle aged dude who had a very peculiar idea about "Western emancipated women" and what ethnicities actually are (aka Yazmin - I wonder if it's because their shallow name search ended up on the Sephardic singer and they went "not looking into it, Spain it is"). There was absolutely not even a bit of sensitivity research on Solmare's part and it was more than clear that they don't understand shit about what they're trying to do.

But I do not agree that the premise needed to be good. I'm fine with it being dumb, silly, making no sense etc. It needed only to be a start of a fun story. But the faults ultimately made it a very painful read.

Breaking the trope of the typical otome MC was an interesting idea imo and that's what I mean when I say it had potential. MCs of colour and LIs of colour could have been a great addition to the otome landscape of that time if the execution of that idea wasn't this abysmal. Solmare had no fraking clue what they're even doing, it was like a friend of a friend of a cousin told them Westerners like that so let's do it.

Some tiny aspects were actually refreshing, differing from typical narrative. Like when MC and her foe from Sleeping Beauty found out the LI has been two-timing them and swore revenge on him and suspended their own rivalry. Atharv being shamelessly bi in commentary, Sirena admitting she could eventually fall for Blanche. (In both cases the wording could have been better though :/ well...) There were MCs who actually found fulfillment in their work and didn't want to return to being princesses - and didn't have to. Some MCs were supported and loyally accompanied by their friends through hardships (Blanche/Snow White was very loyal to Sirena despite her foul mouth). Some of the villains had actually a lot of valid things to say (only some though). Those aspects could have been so good if it wasn't Solmare writing it.

The fact that I'm defending the game really gives me psychological damage... what have u done/j

It was extremely uneven, such good moments mixing with exceptionally shitty takes, bits of interesting characterisation as side characters but swept by shallow cliches that made those characters one-dimensional in their own routes. Every good motif shot down by two bad ones. In the end the potential was completely wasted and ruined by the awful writing, stereotyping and shallow characterisation, and some crappy endings, also something that Solmare truly excells in.

[transgenderer]

@nohoperadio said:

I think I was lucky to read the novels when I was too young and dumb to apply any kind of satirical lens to them because "guy has a very simple task to accomplish but a long series of minor yet somehow impassable obstacles keep randomly tripping him up for hundreds of pages" makes a really compelling story on its own merits imo. Never liked The Metamorphosis though.

(I think having those books in my bloodstream from early on in my reading career primed me to have The Unconsoled as my favourite Ishiguro which everyone else hates, so fair warning I may just be a freak)

hmm. so i started the trial and i guess maybe the problem is that i do not find that idea compelling? that seems like it sucks. maybe i empathize too much with characters. im not good at empathizing with people irl but i find i sort of massively overempathize with the perspective character im reading. so i have to be somewhat careful. i kind of liked the metamorphosis? again im not really sure i got it

@wildgifthorses said:

at least from what I've read, Kafka seems to specialize in kind of "ironic" suffering - missed opportunities, wasted potential, the suffering of burdening others with your suffering, self-defeating neuroticism, etc. And also he's just good at vividly weird grotesque ideas.

The Metamorphosis is famous for a reason cause it showcases both of these really well. That's the only longer thing of his I've read (I have a copy of Amerika I'll get to eventually...) but I've read a lot of the shorter stuff, mostly by just paging around in a Complete Stories, and I feel like that's kind of the way to go.

but idk, I am not like one of these huge kafka fans. he's kind of like borges to me, lots of interesting ideas but after a handful you're like "ok I'm good for a while now"

hmm. im reading nabokovs dozen rn and i find the pieces that are mostly just ironic suffering kind of boring. i dont really...care about suffering? i think? as a reader, i find suffering boring. or boringness suffering. like. idk nabokov is better cuz he makes it funny. cloud castle lake has some funny stuff. and also its very idk, poignant i guess. but people love kafka so much....i liked invitation to a beheading which is supposed to be similar to kafka but idk, invitation to a beheading is sort of fun and surreal in a way. maybe the trial gets fun but it doesnt SOUND like it gets fun.

i'm not sure i really "get" kafka. like. it feels like it's about how much life and especially society sucks, right? but man, i know that. maybe there's something else. or maybe that was more novel in kafka times...

[bobgoesw00t]

Top 10 Video Games of All Time: bobgoesw00t Edition (Part 05)

OK people, WE’RE OFFICIALLY HALFWAY THROUGH THIS LIST!!! Not gonna waste any time here, so my Number 06 Video Game of All Time is:

FINAL FANTASY XV

This takes the spot as it’s the Final Fantasy that I personally was waiting for. The first main entry in the franchise to have a 100% real time, action combat system. The previous games in the franchise had battles in real time, yes, but not in the same vain as the Star Ocean or Tales of series. The game was basically a hybrid of real time but with turn-based inputs and while that can make things intense, NOTHING beats being able to run circles around the enemy and hitting the ever loving shit out of them while having to avoid/guard any attacks they might throw your way. So when it was first revealed that combat for this title would be similar to Kingdom Hearts and the other two JRPG series I mentioned, I was FUCKING ECSTATIC!

The story is also one of my favorites in the series as it starts off with, “ROAD TRIP!!!” but quickly becomes a tale of taking back everything that was taken from Noctis while becoming the standard “Save the World” ending at a pace that’s just PERFECT!!! There are also subtle little changes in the game that you literally don’t notice unless someone brings it up, the big one being that as the game progresses, the days steadily become shorter. The party will wake up at a later hour after resting, and the nights come quicker, leaving more time for the demons to play. It’s literally so fucking subtle that after watching a video that mentions it on YouTube, I CAN’T UN-SEE THE CHANGE!!!!!

Of course, this being a Final Fantasy game, it wouldn’t be complete without Chocobos, which are SO MUCH FUN TO RIDE!!! One of the quickest/cheapest ways to get an asston of EXP is take a bunch of bounties, park the car on the road and then use the Chocobos to run around and kill the monsters (usually staying awake for the night as the Demons do give a good amount of EXP), then fast traveling back to the car and turning the quests in.

As for the car, that’s one of the best parts of the game IMO cause after you’ve cleared the story, IT TURNS INTO THE AIRSHIP FOR THE GAME. YOU LITERALLY GET A FLYING CAR AND IT’S ;OGVHJASPGAUGHPAO H SO AWESOME!!!!!!! It’s surprisingly relaxing to just take off in the car, listen to some of music from the previous games and just fly around for a bit.

FFXV is also one of the easier games to get the Platinum Trophy (or every Achievement if your on Xbox) on and it’s one nine games I’ve gotten the Platinum for (the others being Assassin’s Creed Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla, Batman Arkham Knight, Ghost of Tsushima, Kingdom Hearts III, Resident Evil 6 on the PS4 and Pider-Man), making it a good choice for anyone looking to get the final trophy. The only real roadblock you’ll encounter will be killing the Adamantoisem, which isn’t that hard to kill. It’s mostly time consuming due to it’s MASSIVE health pool and if Noctis and friends are under-leveled, it’ll be an uphill battle for sure. I waited until Noctis was around Level 110 I think, and the rest of the part was over Level 99, took some spells that had the “Limit Break” perk on them so they could deal insane damage and then made sure to go after the things eyes. Also helps out if you’ve unlocked the “Air Dance” ability and use a sword so you can keep the pressure on the beast, and use any summon that decides to help you to chop a chunk of it’s health off. It ended up taking me about 90 minutes to kill the Adamantoise and nail the Platinum Trophy which was a far cry from the “72 real life hours” that people were saying in some previews. That being said, if you try to kill the fucker at any point prior to the post game…it could potentially take that long.

Also want to give a shout out to Yoko Shimomura for NAILING the soundtrack for the game, with MASSIVE props to two songs in particular, Apocalypse Noctis and APOCALYPSE AQUARIUS which play during the boss fight against Titan and Leviathan respectively. Fighting against two MASSIVE DEITIES that could EASILY squish you if they really wanted to WHILE THE ORCHESTRA AND CHOIR ARE GOING BALLISTIC IS ONE OF THE MOST INTENSE MOMENTS I’VE EVER HAD PLAYING A VIDEO GAME!!! And it’s somehow EVEN MORE INTENSE AND EPIC during the Trial of Leviathan because Noctis will spend the majority of the fight IN FUCKING GOD MODE!!! HE’S LITERALLY JUST WARPING AROUND THE PLACE FLINGING THE ROYAL ARMS AT THE SEA GODDESS AND BREAKING HER FINS WHILE THE SAME SONG FROM THE TRIAL OF TITAN IS BLASTING BUT WITH ADDED ELECTRIC GUITARS FOR EXTRA “OOMPH”!!!!! I STILL don’t know how she managed to top the insanity that was Apocalypse Noctis with APOCALYPSE AQUARIUS but SHE FUCKING DID!!!!!!!!!! I ALWAYS look forward to those boss fights and get goosebumps when the songs start up and I HAVE to BLAST IT AS LOUD AS I CAN STAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!

…OK, now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I want to mention how this is first game that I literally have ZERO issues with. I didn’t have an issue with only being able to control Noctis before they added the ability to switch to the other three characters and I HIGHLY suggest getting the Royal Package/Edition so you can get the accessories for the other characters that can totally BREAK THE GAME when you control them. The one that gives Prompto infinite ammo for his SMG lets you just SHRED enemies to bits and it’s stupidly fun to just sit back and go, ‘PEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEW!!!!!“ while the enemy sort of just flails about.

So from a great story with perfect pacing IMO, to an battle system that’s actually, real time action oriented, one of the greatest casts of characters in the series, and probably the best soundtrack in a Final Fantasy game from Yoko Shimomura, this otaku give Final Fantasy XV Five Warp Strikes out of Five: 5/5

Honorable Mentions:

Final Fantasy XII:This is the only other game in the series that I feel had a perfect balance between the battle system, the various gameplay systems, story, cast, music and level of enjoyment.

Kingdom Hearts III:The epic conclusion to the Dark Seeker Saga, with the best combat the series has ever had, DLC that extends the ending PERFECTLY while also giving us some more questions about the future of the franchise, awesome music also from Yoko Shimomura, my favorite World Map and Gummi Ship, an ending theme from Hikaru Utada that makes me cry every time I play the game (Don’t Think Twice is the best theme she’s provided IMO) and my favorite part…NOMURA CONTINUING TO BE THE BIGGEST TROLL IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE!!!!! INSANE SPOILERS FOR ANYONE THAT STILL HAVEN’T BEATEN KINGDOM HEARTS III BY NOW…like by best friend Nolan cause he insisted on playing all the previous games IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER WHICH YOU SHOULDN’T DO EVER!!! Nomura making the Black Box seem like a big deal for a good chunk of the game, it FINALLY SHOWS UP IN THE EPILOGUE and we’re about to find out something…CUT TO BLACK AND WE STILL DON’T KNOW WHAT THE FUCK IS IN THAT FUCKING BOX!!!!!!! Also have to mention: Kingdom Hearts II.9 (we see what you did there Nomura >_<), Sora and the other half-pints breaking the fourth wall in Olympus about the lack of a fanfare and probably the best troll moment in the ENTIRE GAME…putting Let It Go almost FRAME FOR FRAME AS IT APPEARS IN FROZEN ROUGHLY HALFWAY THROUGH DERPENDELLE!!!!!!! You just KNOW everyone LOVED getting that song stuck in their head for the millionth time…NOT!!!!!!! I was also torn between having this game or FFXV at Number 06 but I went with the latter cause I got he Platinum for it first xD

[evilkitten3]

I can't believe Hitsugaya's reigai is a fucking cowboy he gets less valid every time the writers even think about him

[rascheln]

So, I genuinely don’t think Max’s second speech about Billy is a takeback of her letter. If you take it out of context, yes, it is a cruel way to talk about him, especially considering there is not a single acknowledgement of Neil abusing Billy. That part imo is incredibly crappy, because I find it hard to believe that she had no idea how Billy’s father was treating him and talking to him.

BUT let’s consider the context of Max’s letter to Billy vs her speech to Vecna. Because context is pretty important for interpreting these two scenes. Max thought she would die and wrote her final words to the people she wanted to reach. The people who meant something to her. And in her letter to Billy, she finally talks about her trauma, their terrible relationship and, most importantly, her grief for the potential she saw for them. 

When Max makes her speech to Vecna, she is drawing on the emotions he most responded to when he captured her mind. She’s the bait for a mission to distract and kill the guy, so she needs to lure him in. And what better lure to use than her darkest thoughts and feelings. 

Max wanted to die in Billy’s stead. That was her rock bottom. She hated him (and for how he bullied her and threatened Lucas, she is allowed to do so!) and she wished he would die, because she could not understand why Billy would treat her the way he did.  However, the point of that speech isn’t that she hated him so much she wanted him dead, but that she feels immense guilt and grief for wishing him dead in the first place. (This part, I think, is a failure on the writers side. It scratches the surface of the cycle of abuse, but it fails at acknowledging the ways Neil’s abuse of Billy then trickled down to Max.) (Sidebar, but El was pretty much primed to give that context for others to understand this part about Billy's life. It’s a massive waste of her knowledge of his memories, because out of all the characters in the show she understands what it’s like to feel/act like a monster because that’s what their fathers shaped them into. Max and Billy’s relationship didn’t exist in a vacuum and out of all the complicated family dynamics, the writing really shit the bed in giving this the nuance it deserved.)

What it comes down to is that despite hating Billy, Max still wanted them to get along, though. The letter she wrote to him implies that she would have given Billy the chance to be better. It was not addressed to Vecna, but to Billy himself, and was not about hating Billy forever, but about her heart still being open to reconciliation. That’s why I don’t think it makes sense to weigh the contents of the Vecna speech as more important than the contents of the letter.

[procrastinatorproject]

Headcanon comparison time! 😁

(Note: NONE OF THIS is to say your headcanons are invalid or to start Ace Discourse! You are absolutely correct that noone can stop you, and also: I wouldn't dream of trying! I merely want to add my own perspective for a little compare and contrast, because in a twist that will be shocking to absolutely no-one, I have thoughts on this! 🤣)

Okay, so, my personal headcanon:

I'm completely with you on Seven and Elnor! I'm getting major aspec vibes from them, though, at least in the case of Seven, not necessarily sex-averse.

I think, personally, I don't see Rios as ace. Can't even say why, and it's not a hill I'd die on, but it's just not my interpretation of him. On the other hand, I do headcanon Ian (the Emergency Engineering Hologram) as ace, and in my mind, the holos all inherited a lot of their personalities from parts of Rios. So it would seem that I at least see aspec tendencies in Rios that he then passed on 🧐

I wonder about Soji. I could see it, given she's Data's "daughter", and Data was fairly clearly asexual, imo. So, this might be one of the traits that carried over through the fractal neuronic cloning process.

Then again, she was ultimately created by Altan Soong and Bruce Maddox, and those two seem like EXACTLY the kind of ignoramous/lech who would think creating a beautiful young woman who doesn't feel sexual attraction would be a tragic waste, or that sexual attraction is a fundamental part of being human. I would fully expect society as a whole to have abandoned that attitude centuries ago by the time ST:LAS startd, but I can see these two muppets sitting together over a glass of port or whatever and having philosophical discussions about how dtf their nubile creations should be 🙃 (Maybe I'm not doing them justice. Please don't come for me, Maddox-Stans and Soong-Hive 😅 But that's my read of that whole situation so far...)

So yeah, I'm not sure my headcanon of Soji is that she's aspec. But I think she's definitely questioning and when she's finally fully out from under three years of false memories and secret missions and a life controlled by Maddox, who knows where she'll end up!

Now, Agnes is... complicated. My issue with Agnes is that I identify with her SO hard, it's very difficult to tease apart "this is what I think makes sense for the character" and "this is me projecting my own aspec identity onto her" 🙈🙈🙈

I honestly couldn't tell you where I think Agnes falls. She's flirtatious, she's definitely not sex-averse... but then again, when I watched her teasing Rios about his books, I didn't realize that was flirting until someone pointed it out to me. To me, it was just her being bored and bonding with her new crew (and using the distraction to force the shunted off Horrors in her brain to be quiet for a while). So yeah, I find it difficult to make up my mind on where I see Agnes on the allo-ace-spectrum, because my own identity so heavily biases any thoughts I have on that front 😅

(Also, only semi-related: I desperately wish we had gotten to see Agnes grow and get proper therapy and support and figure out who she is now that she's living with massive PTSD, but she's no longer so alone and has found a family crew that she loves and who support her. I think her character has a ton of potential, and now that she has people (and Emergency Holograms) who care enough about her to not just let her compartmentalize her pain but to help her work through it... so many possible directions she could develop in! And similar to Soji: who knows where she'd end up when she's no longer using all her energy to fight her own brain?)

Oh, but to add to the list: in my mind, Picard is definitely ace. And in a Romulan three-person marriage with Laris and Zhaban 🤣

(And again, because it bears repeating: I'm not saying that my headcanons are in any way shape or form "correct" and yours are wrong, OP! I love that we can have multiple readings of these characters and can compare where our interpretations match up or diverge in interesting ways, because that's what fandom is all about! 😁)

I have decided that Rios, Agnes, Elnor, Soji and Seven are all on the asexual spectrum and nothing and no one can stop me

[cosmic-espero]

I know it's just fanservice but if Masters has Ash' event be some "he's cooler than Red" circlejerk instead of getting into the fact that they're literally countepart from different dimensions I'm rioting.

I'm even willing to buy Ash's massive amounts of circumstantial plot armour as being capable of making him defeat Red (even though the latter is objectively much stronger than him lorewise, which is not a diss against Ash- I could talk about why imo Red should stay the strongest trainer from a narrative perspective but the post would get too long), but not if it comes with no actual aknowledgment of the separate continuities they come from.

There is so much potential that comes with this situation that I see going unaddressed for now and I'm afraid they'll end up wasting this massive chance they've been given.

Please don't fuck this up.

[lananiscorner]

3H route lords and/or Tim Drake? 👀

Thanks for your ask, writtendown-woundup!

Edelgard critical beneath the cut. Don't like, don't read.

Claude:

If you look up "wasted potential" in the dictionary, you will not find Claude's picture there, because the creators seem to be allergic to putting him where he belongs. Claude has such an interesting premise! He's a biracial person who has experienced discrimination from both sides of his heritage. He's got trust issues, but he wants to build a world based on trust. He is always seeking knowledge about the world, but refuses to let the world gain knowledge about him. He's a schemer and honestly a bit of an ass sometimes, but at the end of the day, he can be the most dependable and caring person. There are so many fascinating avenues you could explore with this guy! You could wave the most intricate, 5 dimensional Xanathos gambit chess plot with this dude... and yet somehow the writing staff at KT/IS looked at this man and decided what he really needs is a copy-pasted Black Eagles route. Twice. What a tragic waste.

Dimitri:

Dimitri is my favorite character in FE3H, no contest. I love how his greatest strengths are also his greatest weaknesses. I love how they did not shy away from depicting him at his darkest, while not denying him a hopeful ending. I love how you can see his gradual descent into psychotic breakdown happen just as clearly as his gradual recovery. I love how much he loves his country and its people while acknowledging their flaws. Also, he's the best enemy phase unit in the game. I just love Dimitri. It doesn't matter which route I play--if I play 3 Houses, I think of Dimitri, and if it's not his route, I think of what's happening to him in Faerghus while I'm busy elsewhere. As for "they got done dirty by the fans"--Dimitri fans are a mostly chill and wholesome bunch, as far as I have seen, but my GODDESS have I seen some rancid takes about him from Edelstans (calling him a conservative status quo centrist, an epitome of toxic masculinity, someone who had to be put down for his own good... ughhhh).

Edelgard

Okay, so this may come as a shock to some, but I don't actually hate Edelgard. I think she is a perfectly fine example of a nuanced and flawed character. As a villain. I don't know what kind of mental gymnastics must be involved in considering her a hero, because imo she lost any hope of being that (and instead went into "what's wrong with them" territory) the moment she gave her absolutely bonkers war speech and declared war on two sovereign nations. She definitely got done dirty by the writing, what with both CF and her supports refusing to let her suffer any meaningful consequences for her actions, and her attraction to Byleth being uncomfortably shoved into routes where it makes no sense (particularly Verdant Wind). If I were to meet her, I would probably try to deck her in the face, only to get Mired into oblivion by Hubert.

Tim Drake:

This was a tough one, because... who even is Tim? Which of his many volumes of depictions are we talking about? This is why I don't have much to say about him, except Tim is a character who works best when he has someone else to play off of, ideally Bruce, Dick, Jason, or Damian. He has certainly had a number of hair-raising wtf moments in his appearances (e.g. treatment of Stephanie in certain issues, his treatment of Jason in Teen Titans Vol. 3 #47, and that one mini series in New 52/Rebirth, the name of which I can't recall, where he went full megalomaniac psychopath and turned out to be the villain orchestrating some multi-dimensional shenanigans). That said, he can also be a massive, extremely likeable nerd sometimes.